Mayor Calls 2 Main Ideas On Immigrants Unrealistic

By SEWELL CHAN

Published: March 31, 2006

Wading into the national immigration debate, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said this week that two major proposals under discussion in Washington -- criminalization of illegal immigration and a temporary worker program championed by President Bush -- were unrealistic, shortsighted and a distraction from more pressing issues, like better border control and verification of job applicants' documents.

The mayor, a Republican, all but endorsed amnesty for illegal immigrants, a position that is anathema to most Republican leaders in Washington.

''We're not going to deport 12 million people, so let's stop this fiction,'' the mayor said in an interview taped on Monday and telecast last evening on CNN. ''Let's give them permanent status.''

The mayor expressed a similar view on Monday morning, during a news conference on Staten Island, when he said large-scale deportations were impossible and added: ''We've got to figure out what to do, whether we can engage them and get the value of them being here. They're already here. They do a lot of jobs that a lot of other people don't seem to want to take.''

At the news conference, the mayor said, ''I'm not going to focus on any one plan, whether it's the president's, or the McCain-Kennedy one, or any of the others.''

He made similar statements last year during his campaign for re-election.

The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would make it a federal crime to remain in this country illegally -- it is now a violation of civil immigration law -- while the Senate Judiciary Committee has approved a bill, proposed by Senators Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and John McCain of Arizona, that would eventually allow an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants to work toward citizenship.

Mr. Bloomberg has recently spoken up on several issues, like gun control, on which he is at odds with most of his fellow Republicans. While he has repeatedly spurned the notion of running for higher office, some of his aides have persisted in urging him to do so.

In the CNN interview, Mr. Bloomberg said a guest-worker or temporary-worker program would not work.

''Are you going to leave after six years?'' he asked. ''Come on. That's just postponing the problems for the next generation, the next Congress.''

The interview with Mr. Bloomberg was taped while he rode the No. 7 subway line, which goes through neighborhoods in Queens, like Jackson Heights, that are among the most heavily populated by immigrants.

The mayor said of legalizing immigrants: ''It may very well be rewarding lawbreaking. But let's get real. I mean, you know, we don't live in a perfect world.''

Mr. Bloomberg, according to the CNN report, spoke in favor of tighter controls at the borders with Mexico and Canada; a technological system for employers to verify identification documents; and generous visa policies for doctors, engineers and other skilled professionals.

Mr. Bloomberg has long been seen as supporting immigrants' rights. In September 2003, he signed an executive order that generally prohibited city agencies, including the police, from asking people about their immigration status and from sharing such information with federal agencies. He has also expanded translation services in the city's schools and in Medicaid and welfare offices.

''He's been pretty consistent in his views on undocumented immigrants,'' said Chung-Wha Hong, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, an alliance of 150 organizations. ''He's very practical. He rightly recognizes that because the federal government hasn't done its job, it creates an additional burden for state and local governments as they try to carry out their job.''

Even so, Councilman Kendall B. Stewart, a Brooklyn Democrat who is chairman of the City Council's Committee on Immigration, called for the mayor to support amnesty explicitly.

''I think he should say that so that at least all of us in New York City know that he's on the immigrants' side,'' said Mr. Stewart, who immigrated to the United States in 1973 from St. Vincent and the Grenadines. ''You can't say that you support the immigrants and not stand up for them and say exactly how you want to support them.''